Average speed on your cross bike while riding MUPS or Roads with cross tires

Now I know this will vary greatly based on more factors than just the type of tires but humor me. I found that on my cross bike I average 18-22mph with my cross tires (700x33) over distances up to 40 miles after that I decline to around 16-18mph. I just want to see what you all are doing on your cross bikes while riding MUPS or roads with a cross setup.

I don't race, but I have a cross bike with 700x32 Specialized Boroughs CX tires which have a slick top with shoulder knobs and I usually average 16-20 mph for rides up to 40 miles or so. Speed depends on the terrain and my current fitness obviously. 20 sustained doesn't happen all the time though, depends on my shuffle playlist..

I agree having small knobbies (which is what my tracer sports are) is perfect for the mup. Though sometimes I really think having some road slicks would be almost as good especially if I ride the roads a little more.

With slicks on average terrain riding about 45 miles, I'm usually around 18mph. Riding knobbies drops it a bit lower, but not greatly. As my mileage gets higher, my average drops to about 16mph for a 60 mile ride and stays that way as my mileage increases. The biggest thing I notice is that my knobbies wear really fast if I use them on road.

If I'm doing dirt roads, I've been using an older set of knobbies, which has been working well. I don't feel bad about destroying them on the gravel and their rolling resistance seems less than when new. I'm going to try something like the Ritchey Speedmax once I need new tires.

Damn, you guys are fast. I can only hold 17 mph with 700x38 Schwalbe Marathon Cross tires on pavement on a 30 mile ride. But I can hold about the same speed on gravel :-).

When I ride my bike I feel free and happy and strong. I'm liberated from the usual nonsense of day to day life. Solid, dependable, silent, my bike is my horse, my fighter jet, my island, my friend. Together we will conquer that hill and thereafter the world.

^I dissagree. While I may be doing 20+ on the MUP I do occassionally get passed up by people who must being holding at least 25mph. Plus so long as your paying attention to whats in front of you there should be no problems. Remember it doesn't matter to ipod zombies if your doing 10mph or 30mph they are still not going to know your coming.

You're right, and the NJ Turnpike isn't a race track either, but that doesn't stop some people.

I have a couple of rail-trails around here that are decent gravel training trails. Pedestrians are few and far between, so short intervals work well there. It helps me with high speed bike handling, and I use pedestrians to simulate turns. I'll slow to a walking pace near them, and then accelerate once past as if I had rounded a corner and were accelerating out of it. It ended up being similar to the flow in several races that I did in the fall.

When the pedestrian population gets too high for my comfort, I'll abandon the trail and find less populated places. The last thing that I want to do is to hit someone whether it's their fault or not.

As long as I get an hour and a half or so on the bike, I'm happy. I avoid looking at my speedometer esp. when on a MUP (learned a new word for the day). There are some great MUPs btw in Des Moines; I'm just happy to be on my bike.

Now I know this will vary greatly based on more factors than just the type of tires but humor me. I found that on my cross bike I average 18-22mph with my cross tires (700x33) over distances up to 40 miles after that I decline to around 16-18mph. I just want to see what you all are doing on your cross bikes while riding MUPS or roads with a cross setup.

I easily lose 2.5-3mph for my total ride average on the same routes as my roadbike....but I don't ride the same routes on my CX that I ride on the road bike very often so it's not really a fair comparison. If I'm on my CX bike, I'm intentionally looking for some non-paved, hilly miles so my average is usually in the 13-16mph range. I'm currently running pretty aggressive tyres. A file tread might get me another 1mph. Road tyres might get me pretty close to road bike speeds on a paved flat, but I would start to be limited by gear ratios and weight. My CX bike only has 8 speeds oriented more for climbing than cruising, and the bike has just over 5lbs on the roadbike.

Originally Posted by fietsbob

MUP is not a race course.

I agree with this statement 100%. Regardless of what bike I'm riding, I try to keep my speed on the MUP under 17mph. 18+ is just too fast to be safe on the MUP (especially when the speed limit on most Denver metro MUP's is 15mph!). I don't appreciate people treating the MUP like a raceway when I'm walking my dogs or on a leisure ride with my wife, so I try not ride that way when I'm using the MUP for commuting. Over the years, there have been at least four fatal accidents on MUP's that I've used regularly that all involved someone using the MUP as their personal training coarse. Unfortunately, the person that suffers the most severe injuries in these incidents is usually not the person that was going too fast in the first place. Pod peaple and retractable leashes bother me as much as any other MUP cyclist, but if I hit one of them at 20+ mph, it's no one's fault but my own.